


Just A Spoonful of Sugar

by Kookaburra42



Series: Fëanorian Week 2021 [1]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Angst, Gen, Healers, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Fingon | Findekáno/Maedhros | Maitimo, Implied/Referenced Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-24 07:28:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30068766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kookaburra42/pseuds/Kookaburra42
Summary: After Thangorodrim, Maedhros learns that medicine can come in the form of mental help.
Relationships: Maedhros | Maitimo & Original Female Character(s), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Fëanorian Week 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2212197
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	Just A Spoonful of Sugar

**Author's Note:**

> Today's prompt was medicine, which I loved and wanted to do immediately! I also was thinking about how healing doesn't always come in the form of medication, so here we are. Title comes from Mary Poppins. Enjoy!

He’s floating, halfway through a tunnel that inevitably leads to Mandos. There’s someone calling his name, but he ignores them.  _ Russo,  _ they say, but it’s a lie. 

It has to be. 

He’s back in Angband, and someone is checking him for irreversible damage. Sauron stands watch, face a mask of pure observation. Sickness roils through him and he wants to vomit. 

Findekáno leans over him when he opens his eyes, and weeps when Maitimo’s lips form his name. 

“Russo,” he breathes, and presses his forehead to Maitimo’s hand. “Oh, Va--gods, I was worried. I’ll get the healer.” Findekáno leaves at a run, and returns with a harried-looking Elleth. 

She does not introduce herself, simply starts asking questions. Maitimo answers as best he can--Quenya has become a strange language to him, harsher somehow than Angbandian. 

He drifts back into sleep, then is woken soon after by the same healer. She’s gentler now, oddly. She introduces herself as Fintalwa and first replaces his bandages, then helps him to bathe. Fintalwa is not talkative, which Maitimo is grateful for. She shows emotion: sadness, then disgust at what has happened to him (she says this when he flinches at her expression of distaste and he isn’t sure he believes her entirely). 

Maitimo does not mind her presence too much. She is comforting. When she offers him a prosthetic hand made by Curufinwë he sobs, and she does her best to comfort him. 

He cries at night, and she is there sometimes to help him through it. Findekáno is busy; he appears whenever he can, and does the rest.

For him, medicine is the people helping him. Medicine is no poultice or tonic; it is Findekáno kissing his forehead, it is Fintalwa checking on him. It is both of them giving him space and offering comfort when he needs it. 

Findekáno holds him and Fintalwa helps him and he clings to both. Eventually, slowly, he heals. He teaches them words for what has happened to him, relates what went on in Angband. He keeps the language from them--to speak in that tongue hurts more than explaining his wounds. 

Slowly but surely, the medicine begins to work its magic. The world begins to seem brighter again. Not the same as it once was, but it gets better.

And maybe that’s enough. 


End file.
